The Russians came to Baikal in the summer of 1643, headed by a Tobolsk Cossack,
Kurbat Ivanov, who had gathered 75 'hunting, serving and idling people' and
came out to the lake at the Maloye (Small) Sea region. Kurban's guide was Mozheui,
a Tungus prince. As Mozheui said, in 1640 'the Russian people - Cossacks - roamed
on Lama (on Baikal), and from whence those Cossacks had come and since when
they'd been roaming on Lama, no one had any idea.... ' Kurbat Ivanov, 'with
his mates drew a plan of Baikal, and of silty lakes, and of rivers falling into
Baikal... and on Baikal where a fortress could be built'.

In 1646, down the Yenisei and Angara Rivers from Yenisei Fortress, ataman Kolesnikov
came with a Cossack detachment to Baikal 'in order to survey silver ores, whatever
the site.' The ataman and his Cossacks reached the Upper Angara River, where
he founded the Upper Angara Fortress in 1646, and a year later Baikal saw the
appearance of Ivan Pokhabov with his men-at-arms who came to search for silver
lodes; following him there came another detachment with a boyar son, Ivan Galkin,
who placed the Barguzin Fortress on Baikal in 1648. Galkin managed to levy a
tribute on the people living on the shore and investigated the areas near Baikal,
but failed to trace any gold and silver lodes.

In 1655-1656 Awakum Petrov, a 'violent' archpriest travelled over Baikal to
his exile in the Dauria Territory. The nature of Siberia, the environs of Baikal
and the lake itself surprised and astonished Awakum's inquisitive nature. In
his Life the archpriest wrote: 'Round about it, the mountains are high, the
rocks are stony, and of pretty height, - fifteen thousands miles and more to
have dragged on, and never to have seen such anywhere. Atop of these are halls
and stoves, gates and pillars, fences of stone, and yards, - and all these are
God-made. The onion comes growing on these, as well as the garlic - the bulbs
are ever more sized then the Romanov's ones, and are pretty sweet, too. And
the hemp also grows there, the God-grown ones, and in the yard the grasses are
of red tint, - and colourful and fragrant abundantly. Birds are numerous, geese
and swans, - on the sea, like snow - are swimming. The fish in it -sturgeons
and taimens, sterlets and omuls, and sigs, and other species are many. The water
is fresh, and the nerpas and seals are great in it: never have I seen such in
the ocean-sea in Mezen when I used to live there. And the fish are rather plentiful:
the sturgeons and taimens are pretty much fat, - you can't have them fried on
the pan: the fat is all the way around'.

This was the first such vivid literary description of Baikal.

Interesting
information about Baikal was left by Nikolai G. Spafarii, an ambassador of the
Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich to the oriental countries (1675-1678), and in 1701
a book of drawings of Baikal appeared, compiled by Semen Remezov, which featured
the Siberia of the seventeenth century as completely as was possible at that
time. On the drawing "The Baikal Sea" the shapes of Baikal almost
matched the real ones, and 40 tributaries were marked, as well as day travels
and distances for day travels by sail. Remezov never visited Baikal himself,
so he collected the information about the lake from military class's narrative
stories.

The Russian estates in Siberia, spacious by that time, required their own explorations.
At that period the first scientific expeditions were equipped and sent to Siberia
and, especially, to Baikal.

Under personal order of Peter I, academician Daniil Gotlieb Messerschmidt worked
for 10 years (1719-1729) in Siberia. He visited Baikal, compiled a map of the
lake, wrote detailed descriptions of Baikal, and told about hot springs on its
northwestern shore.

?? intensive exploration of Baikal began from the establishment of the Russian
Academy of Sciences (1725). The Second Kamchatka Expedition on Baikal involved
the teams of I. Gmelin (1735-1737), P. Pallas (1771-1772), and I. Georgi. Their
investigations greatly expanded the information about Baikal. Descriptions were
given to new species of organisms: the golomyanka, the sponge, the omul, the
nerpa, etc. A detailed description of a voyage almost almost completely around
Baikal was given by I. Georgi, who expressed an opinion that the lake had come
into existence in a 'forcible' way; he didn't exclude the possibility of a grandiose
earthquake which had formed a gap at the bedrock of the Upper Angara River.
On a commission from P. Pallas, A. Pushkarev, a navigation officer of the expedition,
made the first topographic survey of Baikal and drew its map.

P. Pallas also tried to explain the causes of formation of the Baikal hollow.
He believed that the Baikal hollow represented a huge crevice that had separated
the mountains and then had been filled with water. Pallas noted that the coastal
mountains bore the traces of very strong and rather recent alterations and the
signs of deep antiquity, as well.

After the expedition, equipped by the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographic
Society (1855-1857), Gustav Radde, a naturalist, came to the incorrect conclusion
that Baikal was exceptionally poor in invertebrate animals. This viewpoint of
the recognized scientist slowed down further studies of the lake's fauna for
a long time.

The next investigation period, associated with the names of the participants
of the Polish rebellion B. Dybovsky, V. Godlevsky, I. Chersky, A. Chekanovsky,
and others exiled to Siberia, was extremely intensive. It was B. Dybovsky who
had the honour to be one of the founders of the scientific baikalology - he
discovered the unusual versatility and originality of the Baikal's fauna.

After 1877, I. Chersky (Yan Dominiko) carried out systematic geological investigations
of the Baikal shores during four years. His enormous labor resulted in an original
concept of the geological history of the Baikal Territory and Baikal itself.
I. Chersky underlined the major role of slow gradual alterations connected with
compression and deepening of the narrow lineal folds. He completed a geological
map of the Baikal coastline.

In 1888 Siberia was visited by V. Obruchev, the first and, for quite a while,
the only regular mining engineer of Siberia. In contrast to I. Chersky, V. Obruchev
came to consider that such a hollow could have been formed only as a result
of motion of the earth's crustal blocks along the fractures of the comparatively
recent period; otherwise its steep slopes would have been smoothed by wash-outs,
and the lake would have been filled up with its products. V. Obruchev's viewpoint
of the Baikal's fault origin was supported by A. Lvov (1904), M. Tetyaev (1945),
and other scientists.

At the same time there was a zoological expedition working on Baikal, under
the guidence of A. Korotnev, a professor of Kiev University, while A. Voznesensky
and V. Shostakovich were busy compiling the first substantial essays on climatic
features of Baikal, its thermals, water transparency, and ice cover, and establishing
the meteorological networks on the lake's shores and on Oikhon island.

In 1916, under the Presidium of the Russian Academy, on the initiative of N.
Nasonov's, an academician, the Baikal Commission was formed for the comprehensive
studies of Baikal. The Commission organised an expedition of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, headed by V. Dorogostaisky, and that same year it arrived in Baikal
to select the site for the residential station. The choice fell upon Bolshiye
Koty Valley, 18 kilometres from Listvyanka. The revolutionary events and the
subsequent Civil War broke off the work the expedition had started. In 1918,
the station was transferred to the Irkutsk University, never to be reclaimed
by the Academy of Sciences.

In 1925, under G. Vereshchagin's guidence, a Stationary Expedition (USSR AS)
was formed, which settled on the southeastern shore of Baikal, in Marituy Station.

In 1928 the Baikal Expedition was transformed into the Baikal Limnological
Station. The activities ranged widely, with research involving the whole Baikal
and its coastlines. The studies resulted in identifying the regularities of
temperature distributions at all depths, obtaining information about the bottom
relief at great depths, compiling the first data of the chemical regime, and
describing numerous new species of organisms that inhabit Baikal. All these
activities were supervised by indefatigable Gleb Yuryevich Vereshchagin - one
of the most prominent limnologists, a world-famous scientist.

During war times, the Baikal limnological station worked on the problems of
Angara power construction projects, continued to probe the origin and history
of the Baikal hollow development, studied the wind and wave regimes, exploited
the Baikal's fish resources, etc. Later, the station welcomed the activities
of those who contributed significantly to science, like G. Galazy, academician,
K. Votintsev, hydrochemist, V. Sokolnikov and A. Afanasyev, hydrologists, L.
Tyulina, botanist, M. Bekman and G. Mazepova, hydrobiologists, N. Dumitrashko
and V. Lamakin, geomorphologists, and others.

At the same time, at the Baikal station of the Biological and Geographical
Research Institute (now the Biological Research Institute of the Irkutsk State
University) M. Kozhova supervised hydrobiological researches. Among the baikalologists
of the 20th century, the name of Mikhail Mikhailovich Kozhov undoubtedly ranks
in the first echelon. The scientist's interests incorporated almost the total
complex of intricate biological phenomena, and his monograph Biology of Lake
Baikal gives a rather complete and bright picture of life in the watery
depths of the unique lake. He and his colleagues left many valuable recommendations
on fishery management in Baikal and protection and rational use of natural resources
of its basin.